Chapter 92
On that same day, late at night, Suningna sat alone in the dark living room on the first floor, her hands clasped together in front of her chest, muttering to herself. She felt like a useless coward, completely unworthy of being a descendant of Genghis Khan.
To be fair, Su Ningna performed quite well: she successfully acted as if nothing was wrong in front of Cheng Yushan and Cheng Yusi, and even got the two children to bed an hour earlier than Huang Ruoyu had told her—Su Ningna, who had raised three grassland boys, had never been so delicate and gentle in front of any children; when her three boys were little, she would always give them a good spanking if they didn't sleep.
After making sure all five children were asleep, Suningna went downstairs to the kitchen to braise a pot of beef for Sun Pengfei's return. She was worried that her husband, busy with all the preparations, might not have time to eat and would be hungry. Although she felt sorry for her husband, Suningna also felt gratified and proud. This incident showed that Sun Pengfei was truly a warm-hearted and righteous person, a real man from the grasslands despite being born in Beijing. Suningna once again marveled that she had married the right person. As she cooked the meat, Suningna continued to softly chant scriptures, saying to herself, "I hope Xiaohuang can be reborn into a good family soon. Back on the grasslands, when someone died, my mother would say this to me while preparing food, 'Life must go on.'"
Even though it was the middle of the night, Su Ningna still managed to send Xie Yiling a WeChat message while cooking meat. Less than a minute later, Xie Yiling called.
"Huh? Huh? Huh?" Xie Yiling on the other end of the phone seemed so frightened that she could only keep repeating this one monosyllabic sound.
After hanging up Xie Yiling's call, Su Ningna pondered how to face poor Chengshi—as the Han people say, one of the greatest misfortunes in life is losing one's wife in middle age. So Su Ningna planned to go to Napa Valley No. 5 tomorrow to recite some scriptures, but she was unsure whether to recite the Ksitigarbha Sutra, the Rebirth Mantra, or something else. She planned to call her mother first thing tomorrow morning to ask for clarification.
Although Su Ningna has lived in Beijing for almost 10 years and attended her mother-in-law's funeral, she still finds many aspects of Han Chinese funeral customs incomprehensible. Moreover, since living in Beijing for so long, Su Ningna feels that she has picked up the Han Chinese taboo surrounding death and lost the Mongolian people's open-mindedness towards life and death. As a result, she is now very afraid to face these matters.
But Sunina still thought of Chengshi. She planned to hold him when he needed her, like holding a little brother, and even let him cry on her chest—she was prepared to do everything she could to alleviate Chengshi's pain.
However, after much deliberation, Suningna was not truly prepared to face Chengshi's terrifying and empty gaze.
So when it was completely dark and Sun Pengfei helped Cheng Shi into the gate of No. 8 Palm Beach, Su Ningna only called out "Oh! Xiao Cheng!" before bursting into tears. Then she covered her face and ran into the bedroom on the second floor.
For Cheng Shi, Suningna did not offer any comfort whatsoever.
Yes, looking into Cheng Shi's eyes, Su Ningna couldn't do anything. She could only sit in the bedroom, listening intently to the faint sounds coming from the living room downstairs: the sound of a chair being dragged, the sound of a can being opened, the clinking of glasses, and Sun Pengfei's slightly hoarse voice: "Dude, bottoms up!"
Sunina wished she had the courage to go back to the living room on the first floor, back to those two men; but her legs were completely immobile.
More than an hour later, Sun Pengfei, reeking of alcohol, tiptoed up to the second-floor bedroom, wanting to hear what Su Ningna had to say.
“Pengfei,” Su Ningna murmured against Sun Pengfei’s chest, “I really… I want to comfort him, but I can’t. I can’t help him at all… I really, really can’t look into his eyes… I’m so sorry to our ancestors…”
“It’s okay, honey,” Sun Pengfei said, seemingly drunk. “When something like this happens, you have to think more positively. He’s fine, I’m here. And he just… didn’t expect it, so he was upset. Sigh, people… really… can just disappear like that, so fragile. But do you know what he said to me in the car? He said Xiao Huang did it on purpose, can you believe that?”
"Intentionally what?"
"Suicide. He said Xiao Huang originally intended to abort the child, and then..."
"Oh my God!" Suningna exclaimed, her shoulders trembling. "Impossible! This is too terrible! Do you think Xiao Huang would do such a thing? To commit suicide just to abort the child? This is too... too impossible. If she really didn't want to go to the hospital, wouldn't she have just done it? How could she commit suicide? What do you think?"
"How the hell would I know?" Sun Pengfei growled, then slapped his head. "He told me all this, I'm just repeating it to you. Don't ask me anymore, I don't know anything about other people's business."
“I just can’t believe it, this is too much…” Su Ningna patted Sun Pengfei’s broad chest, “You should go downstairs first, I’ll come find you later, then you can rest for a while. We’ll take turns watching him. There’s some freshly braised beef in the kitchen, you can get some to eat, don’t drink alcohol, it’s not good for your health.”
"Alright."
Two more hours passed, but Suningna still didn't have the courage to go downstairs to carry out her plan to Sun Pengfei, "We'll take turns watching him." All Suningna could do now was sit in her bedroom, feeling afraid of stepping onto the first floor.
However, there had been no movement on the first floor for a long time. Su Ningna couldn't help but wonder: What are those two men doing? Are they just sitting there staring at each other?
Finally, driven by both courage and curiosity, Su Ningna stood up and quietly walked down the stairs. However, standing at the bottom of the stairs, she took a deep breath, then squinted, preparing to step down the last step to face the gleaming crystal chandelier in the living room. But as she hesitantly stepped down the last step and turned the corner, she only saw Sun Pengfei slumped over the table, his arms behind his head, and the plate of braised beef on the table was clearly untouched…
At this moment, Sun Pengfei was fast asleep, even snoring softly. As for Cheng Shi, he wasn't at Palm Beach No. 8 at all.
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